Akshay Hallur is a professional blogger and a digital marketer from India. He is the founder of BloggingX, InfoSparkle, and many other online ventures.

He started his blogging journey in 2013 as a hobby and decided to drop out of college in 2015 to become a professional blogger. Now he is one of the top bloggers of India. He helps people to grow their online business.

You can find Akshay on Twitter and LinkedIn. This is our recent interview with him, as a part of our How I Blog Series.

1. First of all, tell us a little about your background and how you got into blogging.

I’m Akshay Hallur, a professional blogger, digital marketer, and a trainer.

Here’s my story.

I started blogging back in 2013 just as a hobby when I was in Diploma after flunking my 11th class. 

At that time, I used to wonder who creates content on the internet that you get on Google. Later I discovered that bloggers are the ones who create content day in, day out.

I thought blogging would be the best creative outlet for me.

I started blogging on Google Blogger and later moved to WordPress.

Later, I started my blog GoBloggingTips (now BloggingX) and started earning $200 per month. 

At the same time, I got admitted to the university for my engineering graduation. Later unable to cope up with curriculum and blogging at the same time, I decided to drop out of college in 2015 and pursue my passion.

Dropping out of college gave me enough bandwidth, energy, and most importantly time to focus solely on blogging.

2. How many blogs do you have? And how do you manage them?

As of now, I have mainly two blogs. I believe in starting only one or two blogs and focusing on them.

I have a dedicated content manager who assigns articles to writers, proofreads them, SEO optimize them, and publish them on WordPress. She helps me a lot and saves me a lot of time so that I can focus on my main blog, and training business.

When it comes to content writers, I currently have 3-4 regular content writers.

I also have a dedicated video editor, and he also assists me in various tasks.

I’m a big believer in putting forward proper systems and processes to streamline the content creation workflow. With refined systems, I’m able to save more time both for me and also for my teammates.

3. How many hours do your work on your blogs every day? And how do you manage your time?

On my blogs, I work hardly 3-4 hours every day, as I have a proper system in place. The rest of the time, I’m focusing on growing my personal brand and also upgrading my knowledge in business, psychology, and economics.

I’m a big productivity freak. I typically plan my week ahead of time, with good flexibility. I usually prioritize the tasks by applying 80-20 rule and delegate or outsource the rest.

Before doing anything, I ask myself – “Is this the most important thing I should be doing right now?”.

I’m also focusing on energy management, so that I’ll be able to use my time in the most efficient way possible. 

4. Do you outsource any blogging tasks? If yes, share with us some details like from where and what type of tasks you outsource.

As I told you before, I have a hybrid team of remote and inhouse people. 

I outsource the things I personally think are of low priority for me or by doing which I’m devaluing myself. 

If you are struggling to figure out what to outsource, first you need to determine your hourly rate as an entrepreneur.

Here’s my video on this.

I outsource and delegate the following:

• Blog Content Writing (except for BloggingX)
• Blog SEO
• Content Management 
• Video Editing

For content writing, I hire people mainly from Upwork.

5. How do you promote your blogs and the latest blog posts?

• Send an outreach email to all the people whom I’ve linked to or mentioned.
• Share all over social media (also use SocialBee for evergreen posting so that I get consistent social media traffic on autopilot).
• Facebook groups.
• Telegram channel.
• Add to Quuu promote.

6. How do you monetize your blogs?

80% of my online income is from Affiliate marketing on BloggingX and other sites. 

Apart from that, I have my signature training program BloggingX Pro, and also some value-added services.

7. Which devices and gadgets are you using now for blogging?

Here are my gadgets I use for my blogging business:

• iMac 27
• MacBook Air
• Video editing PC build (we use Da Vinci Resolve for video editing)
• S10+
• Canon T5i
• Boya M1 Mic
• Zoom H1 Mic

8. What apps, tools, or plugins do you use to make your blogging journey easier?

For blogging:

• Notion (my online home and workplace)
• Dynalist (for blog outlines)
• Google Docs

My favorite WordPress plugins:

• Elementor Pro
• Astra Pro
• Yoast (soon moving to Rank Math)
• ShortPixel

For my Macs:

• Alfred Powerpack
• Keyboard Maestro (for automation)
• aText
• Hazel (automatic file organizer)
• Copy ‘em Paste (Clipboard manager)

9. What’s your workspace setup like? If possible, share a picture of your workstation or home office.

10. Which book are you reading now? Do you have any recommended books for bloggers?

I’m currently reading Principles by Ray Dalio.

My favorite books are:

• Psycho-Cybernetics
• Atomic Habits
• Thinking Fast and Slow
• Principles
• Mastery

I think it would be great if you read the above books in order.

I have some books in my list, among them I’m pretty sure that the Laws of Human Nature, Super Thinking, Organized Mind, Zero to One, Big Debt Crisis will make it to the charts.

These books are not blogging related, BTW.

11. What’s the best blogging advice you have ever received?

Focus on one blog or maximum two. Authority blogging all the way. 

12. What do you do when you are not blogging?

• Workouts
• Read books
• Listen to podcasts
• Swimming

Do You Have Any Questions?

Now it’s your turn. Do you have any questions for Akshay? Feel free to ask via comment.

Akshay would be happy to answer your questions.

However, if you found the interview helpful, consider sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.